By Philip Green: When James ‘Lights Out’ Toney steps into the Octagon on August 28th to make his MMA debut, he will be facing one of the most difficult challenges of his career. His opponent, 47 year old Randy ‘The Natural’ Couture, is a former two-weight World Champion and veteran of a record 15 title fights, to put it briefly an MMA legend. Not only will Toney need to turn back the clock to 1991 or 2003 when he was named ‘Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year’, he will need to stay on his feet long enough to utilize his superior striking skills and the only obvious weapon that could decide the encounter in his favour. Many fans perceive Couture’s weakness to be his chin and he has been dropped in three of his last four fights, so a talent like Toney has at least a puncher’s chance of success.

But if as many predict, Couture manages the take Toney down, he will be in unchartered territory and a very lonely and painful place. The air in his lungs will disappear quicker during a Rear naked choke than his Mayweather-like claims of being the greatest fighter of all time. Don’t be fooled by recent reports that Toney was able to tap out Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion, ‘King Mo’ Lawal during sparring. True or not (I have my doubts), there is more chance of Chris ‘Mexican Butterbean’ Oreo-la coming into a fight severely weight drained; than there is of Toney making Randy Couture submit!

‘Lights out’ will not be the first boxer to make the switch to MMA late in their career. In 2009, a 48 year old ‘Merciless’ Ray Mercer produced a devastating nine second KO of former UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia, and I’m sure Toney and his fans will be hoping for a similar outcome. One man who definitely won’t be looking for a repeat scenario will be UFC president Dana White, who said this ‘freak show’ at UFC 118 will make an example out of the brash talking boxer. MMA has become the world’s fastest growing sport in recent years, with the likes of Brock Lesner and Anderson Silva now household names amongst fight fans, so White and his organization stand to lose big if things don’t go according to script. Should Toney happen upset the odds and defeat an icon such as Couture with just a few months of preparation, it will deliver a hammer blow to the notion that MMA fighters are top level athletes on a par with boxers and not simply human cock fighters.

Whether he taps out or passes out, no one can deny that James Toney is a top level athlete and should be given maximum respect for taking on a challenge as daunting and unnecessary as this at such a late stage in his career. But by now one should expect nothing less of this future Boxing Hall of Famer whose record currently stands at an astonishing 72–6–3 (2). Toney went 44 fights before his first taste of defeat at the hands of a prime Roy Jones, Jr. in 1994, that’s three more undefeated than a certain other Grand Rapids, Michigan fighter, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. The size of the challenge Toney has set himself certainly puts ‘Money’s’ avoidance of fellow Pound–for-Pound king Many Pacquiao to even greater shame, and it’s little wonder why so many fans today are making the switch from boxing to MMA. The problems in boxing however go far deeper than a champion so afraid of losing his undefeated record he retires every time a legitimate challenger appears on the horizon…. but that’s for another day. For now let’s just look forward to what will surely be a great event, fought between two true warriors and who knows, maybe even a rematch inside the squared circle under Marquess of Queensberry rules sometime in the future?